Improved heel-cutting machine



0. G. OR'ITGHETT. HEEL CUTTING :MAGHINEQ No. 433183. Patented June 21, 1864.

UNITED STATES o-Lrvnu o. onire'nnrr, OF STONEHAM,MASSACHUSETTS.

PATENT OFFICE,

IMPROVED HEEL-CUTTING MACHINE.

Specification forming part of Letters atent No. 43,183., dated June 21, 1864.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, OLIVER G. GRITGHETT, of Stoneham, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, haveinvented an Improvement in Heel-Cutting Machines; and I shoes; and myimprovement eonsistsin the ar-' rangement of a rotary cutter cylinder to move around the wheel while the boot or shoe is jacked or held stationary, the plane of movement of the cutting-face of the cutter-cylinder being made to accord toth-e contour to be given to the edge of the heel, as will be described.-

The invention further consists in the employment, in combination with the jack or car riage upon which the-[shoe is fastened, of a vertical knife to cut down or trim the front edge of the heel.

A machine embodying -my improvement is represented in the drawings, Figure 1 showing a top view, Fig. 2 a 'side elevation, and Fig. 3 an end elevation, of the same.

a denotes the table, upon. which a carriage, b, to which the shoe 0 is jacked, slides horizontally d, a guide plate or frame secured at such height above the table a as to come just in line with and so as to extend around the lower edge of the sole of the-shoe, under the heel, when the carriage his run up into the position shown in the drawings. A drum or pulley, e, rotates in bearings f on the top of a standard, g,and the bottom of the shaft of this pulley is'connected by a universal joint, h, to a long shaft, t, journaled at its lower end by a ball-and-socket joint, 1', to a sliding plate, is. This shaft bears the cutter-cylinder m, carryin g any suitable number of cutters or knives, n.

The cylinder is made to move around the heel,

and according to the form of the heel, as follows: The plate k rests upon the table a, and has one or more friction-rolls, 0, projecting from its lower surface through a cam or pattern groove, 12, in the table a. This groove is of such'forln or curve that movement of the slide-plate k around it brings the cutting-edge of the knife 11 as it rotates into such position with respect to the heel as to out the heel to the proper shape.

Rotation of the drum e-drives the cutter cylinder m and the joints h and 1' permit lateral movement of the cylinder m, such move ment being controlled by the groove p.

To hold the shoe firmly in position while the heel is being trimmed, there are two jawlevers, q, passing through and jointed to the table a, the lower ends of the lever being spread-apart to cause the jaws to grasp the shoe by means of a cam, s, on a shaft, t, which shaft is connected by an arm, u, and link 12 to a treadle-lever, w. Depression of the treadle forces the cam against the inner faces of the jaw-levers and brings the jaws against the shoe, the treadle being kept in position by the teeth of a rack, 00, or other suitable means, and when the treadle is released a spring, y, draws the lower ends of the levers toward each other and the jaws away from the shoe.

When the heel has been trimmed, the carriage bis drawn forward under aknife-frame, a. To a vertical arm or rod, 1), depending from a cross-head, c, a knife, (1, is fixed, said knife sliding vertically in ways 0. The crosshead is mounted upon the tops of vertical slidingrods f, which descend through the table a, and arefastened under the table to a t-readle, g. Thc'movement of the knife d is in a plane at right angles to the line of movement of the shoe-carriage, so that when the knife is brought down by the depression of the treadle y it cuts the heel square across the shoe.

To regulate thedepth of cut, or to prevent the knife from cutting into the sole of the shoe, a stop-plate, h, is fastened to the red I) by an ad justin g-screw. This stop-plate moves up and dow with the knife, and is so adjusted with rnspect thereto as to strike upon the sole of th shoe when theltnife has cut to sufiieientdepgh, or through the heel, thus arresting furth r progress of the knife. The rise of the info is effected by a spring, 2', as will be readily understood.

The cam-groove, instead of being formed in the table a, may be made in a piece, which rests upon the table, and is detachable therefrom, so that the shaft and cutter may be guided in difiercnt paths suited to the trimming of heels of different contours.

The piece It, which bears the ball-and-socket joint of the shaft upon the carriage k, is made adjustable toward and from the heel, so that by adjustment obtained by means of the screw 1) the heel may be trimmed to any desired size Within certain limits.

The guard-plate d may also be changed for others of various sizes, and it should be observed that the shoe ought to be so adjusted in height with respect to this guard-plate as not to expose above it any of the vamp.

If the heel is nailed upon the shoe so as to be more upon one side than the other, the heel is brought so as to occupy a central position beneath the driving-shaft i, which fact is ascertained by measurement from some fixed part of the machine, or by correspondence of the top of the heel with some convenient removable gearing. The shoe, however, has in such cases to be moved a little to one side or to the other, to accomplish which the hole for the pin entering the rear part of the last from the holder has to be slotted sidewise.

The shaft 2', being put in rotation, is drawn by the operator around the heel, force being applied for that purpose to any suitable handle-as shown at i, for example-and the shaft being guided by the influence exerted on the bearing-carriage by the cam-groove.

It will be obvious that with this machine heels .can be very rapidly and nicely trimmed,-

only on their own axes, or on the axes of the cylinders upon which they are fixed.

I claim- 1. A heel-cutting machine so-organized that a cutter is made to rotate on its own axis for the purpose of cutting, and to travel around a stationary heel for the purpose of forming its contour, substantially as specified.

2. The means for operating the cutter and causing it to traverse about a stationary heel, the same being the universallyjointed shafts and the cam-groove, arranged to operate substantially as specified.

3. In combination with the carriage which presents the heel to the mechanism which forms the curvilinear outline, the knife which cuts the front of the heel, and the gage which arrests at the proper point the out of the knife, substantially as described.

OLIVER e. ORITCHETT.

Witnesses:

J. B. CROSBY, F. GOULD. 

